Posted on 08/15/2011 5:40:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last Sunday night, one of my parishioners emphatically made the statement that President Obama was “not just another black man with bad credit.” She felt that class warfare and ancient racial wounds had not so subtly become part of the national debate over our financial strategies and debt. Similar to unruly marital arguments, many of our political leaders have stopped attacking our problems and have begun attacking each other. Liberals are attempting to characterize conservatives as uncaring and racist. The fear mongering on the left becomes very personal to large numbers of both the elderly and minorities.
I was personally deeply offended by the fact that many well intentioned clergy met with President Obama two weeks ago and began to repeat the administration's partisan rhetoric about the debt. These men and women of the cloth were manipulated into saying, “Don’t balance the budget on the back of the poor and elderly.” In an attempt to save face for their lack of leadership, the White House is actually “attacking” the conservative messengers instead of the problem.
The fact that we cannot continue to spend the way that we currently do is obvious. Our national need to re-craft our entitlement programs is also clear. Servant leaders would feverishly look at protecting the long term interests of the entire nation. Instead, many liberal legislators continue to repeat ideological mantras like: “don't support tax breaks for the rich” or “everyone should pay their fair share of taxes.” These slogans sound good to the average person but they presuppose that an equitable national tax structure is in place.
They also assume a nationally agreed upon set of spending priorities. In reality, both liberal and conservative leaders in DC are guilty of the same poor communications practices we find in troubled marriages. Our political leaders are focusing solely on what they want while demonizing the other side.
The title of this article describes my parishioner’s (a black woman with a PHD in counseling) anger at the way the president allows himself to be pigeonholed. Many intelligent Americans of all ethnicities believe sound bites and superficial stereotypes are dominating and confusing our nation's most important discussions. As a political independent and a former Obama supporter, my PHD friend feels the president has failed her through lack of positive, assertive leadership in this national crisis.
It seems ironic to my friends and myself that this presidency that was supposed to usher the US into a post racial era, is actually being used to promote a resurgence of racism and ethnic division. This is not to imply that the administration is doing this intentionally. It is, however, an unfortunate fact many people who disagree with this administration have been vilified as racists (if they are white) and sell outs (if they are black). Fortunately for the nation, things are changing. More and more Americans are demanding results from our leaders. Even blacks and Hispanics from both sides of the political aisles are demanding more than personality and posturing.
Surprisingly, the president's latest critics are black intellectuals, who typically walk in “lemming like” fashion to the tune of Democratic Party talking points. Not surprisingly, Mr. Obama's first intellectual critics were black conservatives. Over a year ago (June 2010) a well-known conservative, Dr. Walter Williams, asked the question, “Can Black Americans Afford Obama?” Next, from a decidedly liberal perspective, Dr. Cornell West and Rev. Al Sharpton had a heated public argument this spring. West called the president “another black mascot” of “Wall Street oligarchs.”
Dr. West's campaign against President Obama's policies did not stop with the spring diatribe. This month Dr. West and veteran broadcaster, Tavist Smiley, have begun a national “Poverty Tour” which has been labeled as an anti-Obama tour. In a DC interview this week Smiley said, “(Americans) want the President to focus on jobs, they want to know he’s going to fight for them. The new poor are the former middle class. It breaks your heart to hear, to see former middle class people talking about losing their jobs.” At this same event Dr. West made the following statement, “There is a moral and spiritual as well as political and economic dimension in this...When you hit that moral and spiritual dimension you’re talking more than Democrat and Republican Parties; we’re talking something deep within the American people.”
The fact that the criticism of the president is coming from both the left and right is not proof that he has become a centrist or a consensus builder. The criticism from black intellectuals is rooted in their desire to see results. People from every ideological perspective simply want the president and our legislators to lead. There is a message here for conservatives. Our fellow citizens want a clear, practical vision that works and they want long standing problems solved.
It is time for all conservatives to take up Herman Cain’s mantra to “be a problem solver” and promote proven solutions, if we are going to win in 2012. In addition, we need to stay away from any slanderous comments that can be misconstrued as racial epithets. This is especially important in light of the downgrading of our international credit rating. It almost goes without saying we shouldn’t be running around the nation saying that President Obama’s just another a black man with bad credit!
It has been my experience that conservatives do not want to talk about skin color. It just doesn't matter. Obama is a bad leader. He has a flawed ideology. He is not eligible to be president. He is hurting the country. Race has nothing to do with any of this.
It's the Left that keeps putting everything in racial terms.
Tea Party: I'm taxed enough already.
Leftist: You're a racist.
Tea Party: The government spends too much.
Leftist: You're a racist.
Tea Party: I like the Constitution.
Leftist: Why are you filled with so much hate?? You must be a racist!!
“Liberals are attempting to characterize conservatives as uncaring and racist.”
Boy, that’s something new!
An acquaintence named John - cannot call him a friend - is deeply and viciously racist. His problems with Obama are purely racist. He is not interested in policy or philosophy or politics. He hates the man because he is black. If Obama had 1/100 negro blood in his veins he would still hate him.
Curiously John has no conservative friends. All of his friends are liberals. Conservatives avoid him as an ugly blow hard. Liberals, however, seem to enjoy talking with him. They seek his opinion on a variety of subjects and treat him with deference. I suppose John fits their template of a conservative. He says everything they expect a conservative to say.
“Liberals are attempting to characterize conservatives as uncaring and racist.”
No, they aren’t. This is a truism to them, so I doubt they spend much time “attempting” it.
Just finished a mystery novel set in Louisiana and Montana. Every single conservative character fit neatly into one of two groups, poor/ignorant/stupid/exploited or rich/evil/manipulative. Only the liberal/radical characters were even drawn as full personalities, the conservatives were caracitures.
The main characters were white small-town Lousiana cops, who were of course liberals. I’m sure there are just bunches of these guys running around down there.
Apparently the author is unaware how much his book would have been improved had he bothered to treat half his characters as human beings, even if he disagreed with them.
“Race has nothing to do with this”.
True enough on that.
I tried an excersize where I wrote up a resume for baraq. This was before the election. Left of race and gender.
Really unimpressive.
But the left has to use race as a defensive weapon to protect baraq. baraq has nothing else.
liberals are of the party that created the kkk.
they use race as a billy club to keep other views silent.
liberals could care less about poverty, race, etc.
The same applies to newspaper editors, book editors, college professors, and Homeland Security.
Conservatives are half the American family...
The time that the Dem Party becomes responsible in spending matters is the time it ceases to exist. Because the Dem Party exists to spend/rob other people’s money to waste on their constituents i.e. fellow thieves. The Dem Party is a giant parasite sucking the blood out of the body of the American people. Full stop.
Lost me here. Liberals aren't attempting anything, they've been doing this for 50 years.
bump
...one of my parishioners emphatically made the statement that President Obama was "not just another black man with bad credit." She felt that class warfare and ancient racial wounds had not so subtly become part of the national debate over our financial strategies and debt. Similar to unruly marital arguments, many of our political leaders have stopped attacking our problems and have begun attacking each other. Liberals are attempting to characterize conservatives as uncaring and racist. The fear mongering on the left becomes very personal to large numbers of both the elderly and minorities.Since no one on the right said anything about it, it's clearly A) left-winger racism or B) agitprop, or even C) both. Sounds like another pile of feces being shaped into a meme by National Partisan Radio.
Obama is no more black than he is a firmly committed heterosexual.
If Obama was white he never would have been elected.
You all better listen to his Minn. speech right now. No passion and no real new ideas that would blame him and his failed policies. Not one. He expects the public to be scammed again with rhetoric and not any American policies that would respect our heritage, history and values. And some good old fashioned common sense and fiscal sanity: cap, cut and balance.
Even the most evil people are still human. They have their motivations and reasons for what they do that seem logical to them, even when we disagree and consider them invalid.
Yet most liberals, who are so screamingly anxious to “understand the root causes” of “why ‘the Others’ hate us,” are utterly disinterested in “the Other” right here among them. They can usually find on their own street, and certainly here at FR, articulate conservatives who are more than willing to explain in great detail why we believe as we do.
But they don’t care. They don’t want to understand us, only condemn us. Somehow they are unable to see the contradiction between this and their stated tolerance and belief in moral relativism.
As an example we’ll never see in our lifetime, why not a movie about the South of the early 60s. A (generally) decent white southerner sincerely believes it is his duty to resist racial integration and as a result commits horrible crimes.
We’ve had movies where we are asked to “understand” pedophiles, Communist traitors and serial killers. For that matter, there are successful TV series built around the glorification of serial killers.
But nobody is interested in trying to explain why many generally decent Americans believed it to be their moral duty to defend Jim Crow.
BTW, I’m not trying to say that I believe those who fought for Jim Crow were true American conservatives, at least with regard to this issue, as I believe quite the opposite. However, the JC guys and liberals both believe they were conservatives.
Did TOWNHALL.COM scrub this post. It is not on their URL or at least it is down temporarily.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.